Personalities Effecting Positive Change
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PERSONALITIES EFFECTING POSITIVE CHANGE, TRAILBLAZERS CARVING NEW ROADS, INNOVATORS ENSURING A BETTER TOMORROW, AND GROUNDBREAKERS RE-SETTING THE RULES OF INDUSTRY — THIS YEAR’S VANGUARDS ARE TAKING ON THE WORLD TEXT: ALETHIA TIANG, ZARA ZHUANG, MELAINNE CHIEW AND HILLARY KANG ART DIRECTION: CLEMENTINUS LIEM AUGUST 2018 PRESTIGE 123 talent balanced with humility and authenticity a foremost authority INSPIRES and INFLUENCES others delivers results NG SIER HAN • ISAAC LIU • ELIZABETH TONG • INDRA KANTONO • KELVIN CHEN • DINESH BALASINGAM • SEAN TAY • DEBORAH IM • JONATHAN SHEN • BALDEV BHINDER 124 PRESTIGE AUGUST 2018 ng sier han, 39 CREATING FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS Ng Sier Han decided to pursue computer science way before “fintech” was a word. His interest in maths and logic drew him to numerical computation and computational finance. Now he creates financial solutions for DBS’ Financial Institutions Group and oversees negotiations between clients and internal stakeholders to produce bespoke solutions. “I’m a middle child and the middle child is good at trying to get two parties to compromise,” says the 2017 Asian Banker Promising Young Banker in Singapore award winner. Ng was inspired to join the industry by the energy of the trading floor he witnessed during an internship at DBS in his university days. But the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 gave him pause. “The challenge was existential,” he recounts. “Amid all the losses suffered by investors and collapses of large financial institutions and sovereign, I was grappling with the question of whether banks added value to society.” Things have picked up since. Ng leads a team of five and contributes to the very DBS management associates programme he himself had progressed through, helping with recruitment, selecting young leaders, and mentorship. But he remains driven to create solutions across all asset classes in the region. “It’s a combination of the training in engineering and a competitive streak that keeps me chasing the next solution, the next transaction,” he says. JAEGER-LECOULTRE POLARIS CHRONO WORLDTIME PHOTOGRAPHY: JOEL LOW; MAKE-UP: ELAIN LIM; HAIR: RICK YANG; PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANCE: ALFIE PAN; LOCATION: SIX SENSES DUXTON FROM JAEGER-LECOULTRE AUGUST 2018 PRESTIGE 125 isaac liu, 35 HEALING WITH A HEART OF GOLD Isaac Liu’s father had never seen his son. Plagued by an illness that robbed the senior Liu of his sight and hearing in his twenties, he never saw him nor anyone else for the rest of his life. But his handicaps did not stop him from being an avid volunteer. Neither did he let them keep him from putting Liu through medical school. Much like his late father, the 35-year-old paediatrician is passionate about serving above and beyond his station. In 2017, Liu took home the Singapore Youth Award, the nation’s highest accolade for youth, in recognition of his tireless work for children. And whenever he receives praise for his work, the good doctor is quick to demur. “My father passed on his heart of service to me,” says Liu. “He rose above his own problems to care for others, and his impact on the people around him left a very deep impression on me.” Liu, who works regular 30-hour shifts, often witnesses the pain of loss in the emergency room but refuses to allow himself to wallow. “As doctors, we can help children who are sick and vulnerable. If we don’t put our all into helping them, who else can?” REVERSO CLASSIC LARGE SMALL SECONDS FROM JAEGER-LECOULTRE PHOTOGRAPHY: JOEL LOW; MAKE-UP: ELAIN LIM; HAIR: RICK YANG; PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANCE: ALFIE PAN; LOCATION: SIX SENSES DUXTON 126 PRESTIGE AUGUST 2018 There was a time Elizabeth Tong contemplated leaving law for good. “Legal practice can be gruelling — it involves long hours and personal sacrifices,” she shares. So seven years ago, she took a year off to backpack around the world. It was then she gained a new understanding of the importance of the law. “I had amazing experiences and met amazing people but I also saw some of the world’s worst poverty, caused by poor governance and no or weak rule of law.” So she returned to practice. Since then, this corporate and commercial lawyer has picked up a string of accolades. She was singled out as one of 40 rising young lawyers by Asian Legal Business and Recommended Lawyer by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific in 2015 and 2017. Currently a director at Drew & Napier, Tong advises clients on transactions and business structures, negotiates contracts and helps them manage legal risks. Her clientele include Visa, SABIC, and the world’s largest technology companies. She most recently worked with private equity investor Hellman & Friedman and GIC on Singapore financial regulatory matters in relation to its €1.8-billion acquisition of Allfunds Bank. Tong also takes time out to lecture on negotiating and drafting at the NUS Faculty of Law, and does volunteer work. “I hope to continue building and developing myself and the people around me, personally and professionally.” RENDEZ-VOUS NIGHT & DAY MEDIUM FROM JAEGER-LECOULTRE elizabeth tong, 35 PASSION FOR THE LAW PHOTOGRAPHY: MICKY WONG; MAKE-UP: ELAIN LIM; HAIR:PHOTOGRAPHY EDWARD CHONG; ASSISTANCE: HUI XIAN; LOCATION: THE HOUSE OF W.ATELIER AUGUST 2018 PRESTIGE 127 indra kantono, 34 TOP OF THE TIPPLERS Jigger & Pony’s Indra Kantono was Singapore Bartender of the Year in born into a family of dreamers. With 2016, had no prior experience when entrepreneurs for parents, it stood to he first joined the company in 2012. reason the young Kantono harboured Kantono’s tutelage and support big dreams of starting his own enabled Boo (as well as many others in business. In 2012, Kantono launched the Jigger & Pony team) to flourish. his first brainchild Jigger & Pony with “My number one priority at Jigger & his wife. The duo would birth five more Pony is to create the culture we want to F&B concepts in the breakneck years have,” says Kantono, who describes it that followed. as his “daily struggle”. Given that Jigger Any seasoned restaurateur would & Pony has ranked among Asia’s 50 baulk at having to run six unique Best Bars for three years running, we’d and separate F&B concepts say it is well-worth the effort. synchronously, more so when one hails from a finance background like GRANDE REVERSO AUTO FROM Kantono, but his people-first approach JAEGER-LECOULTRE has won him loyal fans and accolades. For one, the Jigger & Pony Group takes a personalised approach to recruitment. It focuses on grooming staff with grit, rather than just raw talent: Jigger & Pony principal bartender Boo Jing Heng, who was crowned Diageo Reserve World Class PHOTOGRAPHY: JOEL LOW; PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT: ALFIE PAN; MAKE-UP: ELAIN LIM; HAIR: RICK YANG; LOCATION: SIX SENSES DUXTON PHOTOGRAPHY: MICKY WONG; MAKE-UP: ELAIN LIM; HAIR:PHOTOGRAPHY RICK YANG; ASSISTANCE: HUI XIAN; LOCATION: W.ATELIER 128 PRESTIGE AUGUST 2018 sean tay, 36 BANKING GOOD DEEDS Choosing a career in finance was largely due to circumstance, Sean Tay shares. The executive director and team head of Core Wealth at the Bank of Singapore would help out his parents (his mother was a hawker and his father, a deliveryman) when he was growing up, and supported his family through jobs in factories and eateries and coaching volleyball. “I witnessed first-hand what hardship was like for those not well-to-do,” says the 2017 Outstanding Young Private Banker Award winner. (Tay is also a two- time recipient of the Bank of Singapore’s Pegasus Circle Award, given to the firm’s 10 best-performing bankers each year.) “It made me want to take up a career in finance so I could help myself, my family and others save and invest properly.” On top of driving him to groom his team of young bankers, the heart to serve recently earned Tay a District Most Outstanding Young Rotarian award. As president of the Rotary Club of Garden City from 2017 to 2018, he ran charity and community programmes in collaboration with organisations such as Singapore Red Cross and People’s Association. Tay makes it a point to bring his two children, aged three and five, with him when he volunteers: “What I want to achieve next is see my children follow in my footsteps of caring for the less fortunate in society.” PHOTOGRAPHY: JOEL LOW; PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT: ALFIE PAN; MAKE-UP: KEITH BRYANT LEE; HAIR: RICK YANG AUGUST 2018 PRESTIGE 129 Kelvin Chen was fresh out of university when he managed his first project as an engineer: A sound stage for a theme park. The Associate Mechanical Engineer with Aurecon still remembers the day he saw his design come to fruition and the satisfaction that sent shivers down his spine. He recalls, “It was the best feeling. It made me believe I could achieve anything.” The father-of-three recently brought his kelvin chen, 35 children to the theme park and its sound stage BUILDING VISIONS FROM BEHIND THE SCENES that started it all. “I felt very proud to tell them, ‘Daddy designed this’,” he says. “Even though I am a mechanical engineer by training, I was very involved with the building design.” This affable chap grew up fascinated by buildings and the invisible framework that holds each beautiful structure together. Though most of what Chen does is behind the scenes, his efforts have not gone unrecognised. In 2017, he clinched the Association of Consulting Engineers (ACES) Young Consulting Engineer of the Year in the Mechanical category, as well as the Nanyang Alumni Service Award 2017 for his work with the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Alumni Association (MAEAA) at his alma mater Nanyang Technological University (NTU).